alt Hacker NewsNobel Peace Prize for 2026 to Navanethem Pillay
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Related ongoing thread:
US imposes sanctions on ICC hours after former judge wins Nobel Peace Prize - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50021066 - Oct 2026 (288 comments)
Great to see that they're not afraid to stand up to the rising authoritarianism
My wife (also of Indian descent and from Durban) was happy when I forwarded her a BBC link of this news.
She remembered her late mother used to talk a lot of her as she managed to become a lawyer despite being an Indian in apartheid South Africa.
Yay, congrats Navi! Thanks for contributing to international law!
What a courageous woman. There is so much suffering and horror involved. And Scandinavians aren't shy to set a statement.
and here you go
US unveils sanctions on ICC in move court condems as 'assault on rule of law'
Unfortunately Nobel Peace prizes are stained with the reputation of going to some pretty undeserving people (Henry Kissinger, Shimon Peres, Obama, etc) and this mars the image of the prize even as a whole.
There are actually people who spend their lives working for peace, and die in the effort. And then there are people like Henry Kissinger. They share the same prize.
More recently, the prizes are even more obviously politicized(1), so when the west is trying to overthrow Iran, it gives the prize to western-backed dissidents fighting for "women's rights" in Iran - the nation that has female airline pilots and university professors, but not to the scores of dissidents executed by Saudi Arabia, where women only recently got the right to drive. None of those murdered by Saudi Arabia, even if they died arguing for women's rights, will ever qualify for the Nobel Peace price. Not while Iran still needs to be overthrown.
1. See https://www.eureporter.co/nobel-peace-prize/2025/10/27/when-... for a survey of recent winners and what political agenda was pushed with each award.
They went for the IvsP and chose a side, nothing interesting here.
I'll be amused to see how the administration reacts. Perhaps we'll end up having the Trump Prizes.
> in 2019 she became an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case in which Myanmar stands accused of genocide.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2026/pillay/facts/
I wonder who committed said genocide... oh, yeah, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Reminder that the US administration is on a campaign to dismantle the ICC for echoing similar findings to this Nobel Prize winner in her role at UNHRC [1].
I'm extremely grateful to, and humbled by, these people continuing their brave work knowing they will face the full wrath of the US and Israel govs and their campaigns to dismantle accountability for the worst crimes.
[1] https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/20...
This announcement has become an annual troll event for the lunatic in the office; I heard he was pretty pissed off this morning, although that’s usually the case with him.
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The oberturies posted on HN are more worthy of Noble than Noble's being handed out to non sceince folk because of politics .. at this point, its become more like Forbes ..
I obviously think my wife should have won, but at least she won the greatest award, an aaron sorkin movie
What neither the announcement nor any comment here (when I checked) has noted is that The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel chaired by Pillay found, in Sept 2025, that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians. Don't want to relitigate that finding (especially the "specific intent"), but it strikes me as a surprisingly political and divisive choice.
The problem is you have to be noteworthy enough to be considered; and are going to be in close proximity of atrocities (hopefully trying to prevent them). Realistically this means a higher percentage of laureate are now generally accepted to have some complicity in atrocities then the percentage of normal people.
I was just checking which were the top guesses on polymarket before the announcement and this winner was not even a choice on there. At least we know there's no insider trading at the Nobel foundation.